‘The Batman’ Officially Delayed Due to Coronavirus

We already knew that The Batman was only 25 percent finished when production was recently shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic. The longer filming was stopped, the greater the likelihood of what now has happened: The Batman has been delayed.

Originally scheduled to open in theaters on June 25, 2021, the film has been bumped back to October 1, 2021. A little over three months isn’t the biggest delay incurred by a film since the pandemic started — we’re going to be waiting an entire year for F9: The Fast Saga, for example — but any delay for one of the most anticipated films of next year stinks anyway.

Warner Bros. shuffled a number of its other productions today as well. Shazam 2 will now open on November 4, 2022, a delay of more than seven months from its original April 1, 2022 release date. The Sopranos prequel film, The Many Saints of Newark, is now scheduled for a March 12, 2021 release, instead of its intended September 24, 2020 opening. And the Elvis Presley biopic from Baz Luhrmann that stars Tom Hanks and Austin Butler, which previously held The Batman’s new October 2 2021 release date, is now bumped back to November 5, 2021.

The worst part of all this is there’s no way of knowing whether these release dates are final or temporary. Coronavirus cases are falling around the United States, but most health experts say without adequate testing it will be difficult to reopen the economy — and it’s unclear how Hollywood productions will be able to resume in the era of social distancing. The Batman already lost at least one crew member to the disease, dialect coach Andrew Jack. No movie is worth the cost of someone’s life. So the reality is we might not see any of these movies on these dates. Right now, the future is very unclear.